Winter Concert
for Johanna
A youth in
black stands at his rack of bells,
rocking
slightly back and forth—a bird
on a wire in
sway to the dreadnought
drone of a
horn. He lifts a mallet
just in time,
taps a single B flat
that sends
the sparrow clarinets into an air
of important
duties and tasks. All the while
a warm front
moves north into the suburbs,
raising up a
countryside of mist and fog—
measure after
measure of silent timpani thunder
felt
underfoot by concert goers everywhere.
They step
into the white dark, a people blinking
into a new
creation, waking to that anvil note
that bore
them in her rocking lap.
—by Terry Ofner
—by Terry Ofner
Bio: Terry Ofner grew up in Iowa not far from the
Mississippi River. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa, where he
attended the undergraduate Iowa Writer's Workshop in poetry. He is currently an
editor for an educational publishing company. He has published poems in World
Order, 100 Words, Eclectica, and Right Hand Pointing. His poem "Mama
Carving" won first place in the Interboard Poetry Community Contest,
January 2015 (Ned Balbo, judge). He is drawn to themes of nature and family and
is working on his first collection of poems.